


Robots With Elbow Rockets

by Shipperoftrashyships



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M, Gauntlets and Greaves Week, Mercury is a little shit, Pacific Rim AU, Sad Memories, i'm terrible at tags, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 05:30:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13968378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shipperoftrashyships/pseuds/Shipperoftrashyships
Summary: When the world is slowly coming to an end, former Jaeger pilot Yang finds herself getting back into the pilot's seat.





	Robots With Elbow Rockets

**Author's Note:**

> First off I want to say a huge thanks to Adox and glitteringeva for beta reading this fic of mine <3 Really hope you all enjoy this!

_When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume both human and Faunus resources alike for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of mobile weapon was devised: massive robots called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the most powerful and strongest Jaegers are proving nearly defenceless in the face of the relentless Kaiju._

To the rest of the world Jaegers had meant safety and piloting them had made Yang feel strong, invincible, like nothing in the world could stop her. Now they just stood for pain and sorrow. Out of habit, she reached for her right arm, the cool feeling of metal on her hand bringing back painful memories.

She wasn’t sure why she had agreed to rejoin the fight against the Kaiju. She still remembered the speech Ozpin had given her just a few days before, after he’d found her drowning in strong liquor, most likely trying to forget her past. He told her that the world was most likely going to end, and asked her if she would rather die sitting in a bar, drunk and alone, or die fighting in a Jaeger.

His little pep talk sparked something within Yang, giving her a will to fight once again, but even with all that fire in her heart, it still wouldn’t dull the pain she carried. Yang was pulled from her thoughts as she felt a hand turn her around. She came face to face with her Uncle Qrow. He gave her a warm smile and Yang immediately pulled him in for a hug.

“Hey firecracker,” Qrow whispered.

“Hey.” Yang returned his smile, It was nice to see a familiar face.

“I’ve missed ya kiddo,” Qrow said, despite Yang being twenty-six now.

“I’ve missed you too.”

Qrow broke apart from the hug. “C’mon, Oz wants to chat down in the hanger bay,” Qrow said before they made their way towards the elevator that would take down to the hanger.

Once the pair had gotten into the elevator, it didn’t take them much longer to reach the hanger bay. However, as soon as Yang stepped out of the elevator, where a tall male wearing a grey and black jacket barged right into her shoulder.

“Hey, watch it, jackass!”

“Bite me Blondie,” he replied, making Yang see red. She made a step forward to follow him, but Qrow softly grabbed her by the shoulder, stopping her.

“Let it go Yang, Oz still wants to chat, remember,” Qrow gently reminded her, steering his ticking time bomb of a niece in the direction of where Ozpin was supposed to be.

“Ass,” Yang mumbled under her breath, making her uncle chuckle a little.

They then continued their walk through the hanger. Yang still had to admit, the human and Faunus ingenuity was incredible. When the Kaiju first attacked it took three days and two cities lost to kill the gigantic beast with conventional weapons, at the cost of over fifty thousand innocent lives. The next attack was just as bad, cities were being destroyed, looking as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped on them. When both human and Faunus alike realised these attacks wouldn’t stop, they put their past differences aside to face a common threat and created monsters of their own, thus creating the Jaeger program.

Only now she noticed just four Jaegers standing in their docking stations with maintenance work being carried out on them.

“Where are the rest of the Jaegers?” Yang asked and a pained look flickered over his face before he looked away.

“We lost them all. The Kaiju started getting smarter, more aggressive. They started taking Jaegers down faster than we could build them.” No wonder Ozpin wanted Yang back, things seemed quite desperate.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Yang whispered just loud enough for Qrow to hear.

“Me too, Yang, me too. Anyway, Oz is just up ahead, he’ll tell you a little more about our plan.” Soon enough the two of them came to a stop in front of Ozpin, who was chatting with a man wearing an orange boiler suit and a yellow hard hat, they were most likely discussing Jaeger maintenance. Ozpin dismissed the worker away once he noticed Yang and Qrow.

“Ah, Miss Xiao Long, I hope your journey here wasn’t too stressful?” Ozpin asked politely, cane in one hand whilst the other held a mug of what Yang assumed was coffee.

“It was bearable. Qrow said you needed to tell me something?” Yang said, hoping to skip the small talk.

“Yes, things, as you may already know, are quite dire. We’re lacking in both Jaegers and pilots and the council is planning to cut our funding in two months time.”

“I want to help, I really do, but I just don’t think I can let someone else into my head again,” Yang said, her voice now quieter than usual.

“I know it must be difficult for you Miss Xiao Long. But would you of come all this way if you didn’t want to try?” He was right, in a way. Yang did want to pilot a Jaeger again, but she was afraid, afraid of letting someone live her memories, to feel her pain and loneliness.  

But she was Yang Xiao Long, an ace Jaeger pilot. She was strong. She wouldn’t give up now.

“Who will be my co-pilot if I agree?” Yang asked she didn’t want to let just anyone into her head.

“He’s standing behind you, Yang,” Qrow said. “Meet Mercury Black,” He gestured with his hand for Yang to turn around and she came face to face with the jackass from before.

“Oh, it’s you,” Mercury said, sneering as he spoke.

“No way, find someone else,” Yang said, wanting to storm off, but Qrow’s pleading gaze made her stop. Seeing that sneer on Mercury’s face made Yang want to punch him into next week.

“Yang, trust me when I say this, but he’s the best choice we’ve got right now. He knows how to fight and how to pilot a Jaeger,” Qrow said.

Yang growled quietly. “Fine, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.”

“Excellent. Tomorrow, you two will have a small spar before making an attempt a neural link. If you’re compatible we’ll have a green light to end this problem once and for all.”, Ozpin’s tone was inappropriately cheery.

“Isn’t it a bit too soon for Blondie here to be jumping back into a Jaeger?” Mercury asked, clearly not impressed by Yang.

“Her name’s Yang and if she thinks she’s ready, then she is. Once you link up, it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget that kinda thing,” Qrow said before Yang could reply. Mercury was really getting on her nerves already, despite how hot he looked. Wait, where did that thought come from? Yang smacked herself mentally.

“Whatever, just don’t blame me if shit goes wrong,” Mercury said before walking off.

“If he wasn’t such a good pilot, I would have broken his fingers ages ago.” Qrow sighed and reached for his flask, taking a sip before offering it to Yang.

“I’ll pass. I guess I should be sober for tomorrow.”

“Heh, yeah, probably a good idea.”

________

Yang oke early. Today she was to spar with Mercury, to text and refresh her skills in combat. She was actually looking forward to it. She really wanted to punch him in the face and _kiss him._

_Why was she thinking of him like that?_

Yang quickly had a shower and got dressed before having breakfast. Soon enough, she was in the sparring room, where a small crowd had already gathered, excited to see Yang fight. Yang eyed Mercury. He was already standing in the centre of the room, the floor around him surrounded by training mats to soften any impact with the ground. Yang made her way to the centre, giving herself some small stretches.

“You’re late,” was all that Mercury said to greet her; no hi or good morning. She should have expected that.

“Yeah well nobody told me what time to be here.” Yang bit back out at him, making Mercury scoff.

“You think the Kaiju are going to let you sleep in? Think again Blondie.” Mercury rolled his eyes at Yang.

“You two ready or are you going to keep flirting?” Qrow shouted from the sidelines, flask still in hand.

That remark made both Yang and Mercury growl. Soon enough both of them got into a stance, nodding that they were ready to fight. The pair eyed each other intensely whilst they circled around, waiting for the other to make the first move. Unfortunately for Yang, patience was a weakness of hers.

Yang lunged forward with her robotic fist, aiming for Mercury’s stupid face, but it was as if he read her like an open book. He instantly moved himself to the left, then used a leg to trip her up and bring her down to the floor. He clearly won that round.

“One-nil to me,” Mercury said, arrogance in his voice.

Yang quickly got back on her feet. She used her momentary element of surprise to clock Mercury right across his jaw with a perfect left hook. The hit caused Mercury to stumble, almost falling down as he regained his composure. Yang was pretty certain he mumbled, calling her a bitch, but she didn’t care.

“One all.” Her turn to be cocky, but she made sure to be ready for his return attack.

Mercury charged at Yang, swinging his right fist at her, but she quickly ducked out of the way, making Mercury miss wide. Having gained a new advantage Yang attacked with a large right hook, but Mercury had used his momentum and brought his right leg up to meet her fist. The force of the impact caused both of them to lose balance and fall to the floor.

“Two all!” They both heard Qrow shout, who seemed to be enjoying this fight.

Both of them, now annoyed at the other, quickly stood back up and charged at the same time. The grabbed each other once they reached the middle and began wrestling for control, trying to gain the upper hand. Yang then saw her chance. She used her left leg to trip him up and used her body to force him to the floor.

Mercury hit the ground with a loud thud, his body taking the brunt of the impact. Yang, however, landed on top of him, practically straddling his hips, both of his hands caught in hers at this point. _He really is handsome as hell._ Yang thought as she stared deeply into his grey eyes. Both of their breathing was heavy. Then Yang felt it. The loosely fitted pants did nothing to stop Yang from felling Mercury’s erection. Yang’s cheeks went a dark shade of red. If the smirk on Mercury’s face said anything, it meant that he knew that she knew he was hard as a rock right now.

“Congratulations Firecracker looks like you won, still got it in you then,” Qrow spoke as he walked to the centre of the room, helping Yang up before helping Mercury up. Thankfully for Yang and everyone else involved, Mercury managed to hide his erection, but he stormed out of the room before anyone could say anything else. He clearly wasn’t happy with losing.

“Sore loser much,” Yang muttered under her breath as her uncle stood beside her.

“Yeah, something like that. I’ll go talk with him, now go get something to eat. You’ve still got the neural link to try today,” Qrow said, smiling as he walked off.

Three hours later, Yang was wearing her black pilot suit. It felt odd wearing the light metal suit that would help her body cope with the strain of controlling a two thousand ton Kaiju-killing-machine. She took in the sight of her new Jaeger. It looked nothing like her old one. So there was one positive. It was more silver and black in colour compared to the yellow and black of Ember Shroud, her old Jaeger. It seemed almost bigger than Ember Shroud too.

“Quite magnificent isn’t it?” Ozpin asked Yang, startling her a little. He took a sip of his coffee before he spoke again. “Even after all these years working with them, I’m still impressed how we all came together to create them.”

“What is its name?” Yang asked as she looked up towards the head of the Jaeger.

“Stahldrache.” Ozpin chuckled lightly when he saw the confused look on Yang’s face. “It translates to Steel Dragon in German.”

“Oh, that’s actually pretty cool. Quick question, who comes up with these names?” Yang asked as she inspected Steel Dragon a little more.

“You know, I’m not too sure actually,” Ozpin replied, before walking off, leaving Yang still a little confused.

Shortly after the conversation with Ozpin, Yang was standing inside the head of her new Jaeger. Soon she heard the heavy clang of footsteps entering the head of Stahldrache, Mercury finally arrived.

“You’re late,” Yang said, using Mercury’s exact words from earlier. Mercury ignored her as he walked over to the left-hand side of the cockpit. “Hey, do you mind if I take the left side? I’d feel more comfortable using my real arm,” Yang asked, trying to be polite to him.

“Whatever,” Mercury grunted in reply as he walked over to the right-hand side. Yang just sighed and rolled her eyes at him.

The two Jaeger pilots walked onto the platform they would control Steel Dragon from. Their boots locked into place as the workers around them quickly plugged them into the system, preparing them for the neural link. Yang began to calm her mind, to think of nothing. Latching onto a memory would cause major problems.

“Neural link beginning in five, four, three, two, one.” A robotic voice counted down, once it was just Yang and Mercury left in the cockpit.

Yang felt her mind get sucked into the void, memories of her childhood passing her by. There were happy moments with her father and Ruby. But there also were sad moments, like the day her mother left and never came back. Then came the part where she would see fragments of Mercury’s past.

And what she saw was horrible. She saw a small boy wondering why his mum was there one day and gone the next. She saw him getting constantly hit by another man. His father? Yang wasn’t sure, but her heart broke for him.

Both Yang and Mercury were suddenly pulled from the void, the neural link being a success. They knew what the other was thinking. It was as if they were one person. When Yang lifted her left arm, Mercury lifted his, when he put his right arm forward, so did Yang. At the same time they moved, their Jaeger moved too It truly was a magnificent feat of engineering and science.

Meanwhile, in the mission control room, Ozpin and Qrow watched as the Jaeger moved its arms around, copying exactly how Yang and Mercury were piloting it from inside.

“Neural link is stable,” Qrow informed Ozpin, keeping an eye on the holographic screen.

“See, what did I tell you Qrow. They’re a perfect match.”

Back in the Jaeger, Yang and Mercury continued getting used to piloting Steel Dragon. It was going surprisingly smoothly. Oh how she missed this feeling, having the power to take down the massive beasts that threatened their world, how she and Blake would crush anything that came out of the breach. Blake, she shouldn’t have thought of Blake. Suddenly the Jaeger shook violently, alarms started blaring in the cockpit. Yang had dismantled the link. Then Yang’s worst memory hit both her and Mercury like a Kaiju punching a Jaeger.

_Italics “God damn it! Why won’t this thing just die already!” Yang shouted as the Kaiju codenamed Knifepoint circled back around Ember Shroud for another attack._

_Ember Shroud was already in a bad situation. Knifepoint had severed its right arm, leaving the Jaeger with only one option for both offence and defence. Yang’s arm was bleeding heavily. After the attack that cost them Ember’s right arm, Yang’s arm had been fried and cut by the electricals of the Jaeger. It almost felt like having her own arm cut off, but she could, and would still fight._

_“Yang, we need to focus. We can still take this thing down. I’ve still got some rounds left in the plasma cannon.” Blake told her best friend and lover. Blake was always the calm and rational one in the partnership. Yang nodded her head in agreement._

_Ember Shroud turned to face Knifepoint as it lunged through the air, hoping to catch the Jaeger off guard. Yang and Blake moved their Jaeger to the right before they used an uppercut to hit the Kaiju right in its jaw, sending it flying back into the water they fought in._

_“Ready the plasma cannon,” Blake shouted as they began to aim at Knifepoint with the remaining arm of Ember Shroud._

_However, just as they went to shoot, Knifepoint dove deep into the water, making it impossible for Blake and Yang to hit it. The Kaiju was quicker under water, causing them to lose sight of it, a fatal situation if the Kaiju wasn’t found again._

_Moving with incredible speed for a creature that weighed over two and a half thousand tons, Knifepoint lunged out of the water, gripping Ember Shroud with its massive claws, then one claw reached for the Jaeger, trying to kill it. The claw buried itself deeply into Ember’s cockpit, destroying anything it touched._

_“Blake! Hold on!” Yang shouted, but it was to no avail, Blake was suddenly ripped from the cockpit and thrown far into the air. “NO!” Yang screamed out in agony as she saw her friend, her lover, her co-pilot killed right before her eyes, feeling everything Blake felt as she died, the fear, the coldness of knowing death was about to take you— and then sudden silence._

_Now filled with a blind rage, Yang managed to get control of the remaining arm of the Jaeger and load its plasma cannon. Yang screamed out in anger now, overcharging the plasma cannon. The overcharged blast could very well kill herself but she didn’t care, she was going to take this damned Kaiju down and if she went down with it, so be it. As soon as the plasma shot went off, everything for Yang went black._

Reliving that memory felt like it had taken a lifetime for Yang, but in reality, it had taken just seconds. Yang managed to regain her composure, the heads-up display informing her that she now had control of her neural link. The same could not be said for Mercury.

_Italics Yang found herself standing in a small wooden house, very similar to her childhood home, except this one was devoid of any warmth or love. The walls looked darker and it felt cold in the house. There was a tattered couch and beer cans littered around the room. To her right, she could see a tall man breathing heavily, a bloodied crowbar in his hands. He had a sadistic smile on his face that sent shivers down Yang’s spine._

_“Where do you think you’re going boy?” he spat out. Mercury’s father? She couldn’t be sure._

_Yang turned her vision to her left. What she saw shocked her. There was Mercury, slowly trying to crawl away, his arms desperately trying to drag his broken body away from his father. Yang saw his legs, covered in blood and cuts, some bone sticking out of one leg whilst the foot on the other leg was twisted in such a way it almost made Yang throw up. Mercury was sobbing as he crawled, his pain was bringing joy to his father_

_“You’re pathetic, you’re nothing but a weak boy. I should have killed you when I killed your mother.” Mercury’s father spoke, Yang felt sick at having to witness this memory, suddenly, Mercury’s father swung down at Mercury’s leg, the tip of the crowbar lodging itself deep into Mercury’s flesh._

_“Mercury, listen to me, this isn’t real, this is just a memory. He can’t hurt you now, you need to come back.” Yang pleaded, trying to break through to her co-pilot, but she failed. He was stuck too deeply in his memory. Yang was powerless to do anything, she just hoped her Uncle or Ozpin would think of something quickly._

_All Yang could do was watch helplessly as Mercury dragged himself. She saw him reach for something on the ground, the look in his face had turned from fear and pain to determination. Mercury had found a pistol, how he had it hidden there, Yang didn't know. Mercury managed to roll onto his back, hissing out in pain as he moved._

_His father laughed as Mercury aimed the gun at him._

Unbeknownst to Mercury, his actions in his memory triggered his present body to lift the Jaeger arm up, arming the plasma cannon in the process. Everyone in the facility began to panic, one blast from the massive weapon could kill hundreds of them.

“Cut the power now!” Qrow shouted. They needed to end this before everyone was killed.

_“Do it, you don’t have the strength to pull the trigger.” His father laughed menacingly at him._

_“Screw you Marcus, I hate you!” Mercury shouted back at his father._

_“You’re nothing but—” Marcus never finished his sentence as a shot rang out. Mercury had pulled the trigger, and both of them were ripped from the memory._

Mercury gasped painfully as he broke out of his memory. Yang was already by his side.

“Mercury, you’re okay, you’re safe now.” Yang felt the need to comfort him, to tell him he was okay. But he shook her off of him angrily before he marched out of the Jaeger. This got on Yang’s nerves, all she wanted to do was help him. Well, Yang wouldn’t give up, so with a determined look on her face, she got up and followed him.

“Mercury!” Yang shouted, trying to get his attention, ignoring all the other people staring.

“Leave me alone Yang,” Mercury shouted back in reply as he continued to walk away from her.

“Not going to happen.” Soon enough she was within reach of Mercury. She managed to snake her prosthetic arm around him and turn him around. Mercury had a look of pure rage on his face, he pulled himself away from her.

“I said leave me alone Yang,” Mercury growled.

“No,” Yang countered, “Not until you talk to me.”

“Leave it Yang. You have no idea who the hell I am or where I’ve come from and I’m not about to tell you my whole life story,” His tone was dark and angry but everything he said just made Yang scoff.

“But that’s the thing, I know exactly where you’ve come from and who you are, I just saw it all. I know your life story!”

“Well, then you’d know I don’t want to talk about it!” Mercury shouted back before he stormed off again.

“Fine!” Yang too shouted back, before walking off in a different direction, neither of them feeling any better after that little argument.

__________

Yang was sitting alone in the food hall of the Jaeger facility, the tray of food in front remained untouched. She didn’t quite feel like eating anything and she knew why. So instead, she just moved the food around with her fork.

“Something got you down firecracker?” Her Uncle asked as he sat down across from her, quickly digging into his own food.

“What gave it away?” Yang asked sarcastically.

“Where do you want me to start, the fact you’ve been sitting here for the past hour, not even touching your food? Probably best you get yourself some fresh food.” Qrow gave his niece a small smile.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Yang let out a sigh before speaking again. “I just wanted to help him, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. He’s a stubborn one, reminds me of you sometimes. Don’t worry too much though, he’ll be back to his old self soon enough.”

“The things I saw though, it was horrible. No one should have to go through what he went through,” Yang said sadly, her heart feeling sad just thinking back on Mercury’s past.

“We’ve all gone through some shit Yang. Is it as bad as what he went through? Maybe not. But you’ve also got some bad memories, it’s what we do after that matters. You know, I heard them say there were still two trays of food left.” Qrow gave Yang a wink. She instantly took the hint and quickly got two new trays of food, she had a certain silver-haired man to find.

Yang managed to find Mercury rather quickly. He was sitting on a lone walkway that overlooked the Jaeger hanger. She approached him quietly, but he somehow heard her. He looked at her but didn’t indicate that he planned to leave, so she sat down beside him, offering him the tray of food.

“Peace offering,” Yang said when he hesitated to take the food from her. Mercury let out a small laugh before he took the tray of food, he even gave Yang a small smile.

“Nuggets? How’d you know they were my favourite?” Mercury asked with a slight smirk.

“I was in your head remember? I know all of your favourite things,” Yang replied, making him laugh a little again.

“It was a rhetorical question, Yang.” Mercury let out a deep sigh. “But thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

The two ate in a comfortable silence as they watched people conduct repairs and maintenance on the few Jaegers that remained. It felt peaceful, which was a rare feeling these days with the apocalypse looming on the horizon.

“I’m sorry about snapping at you before. I was mad at everything after seeing him again,” Mercury whispered just loudly enough for Yang to hear.

“It’s alright, I probably shouldn’t have pushed you as much as I did,” Yang replied, equally as quiet. “When Blake was taken from me, we were still connected in through the link. I felt everything she felt, her pain, her fear and then suddenly she was just gone and I felt so empty.” Yang stared ahead, looking at Steel Dragon.

“I know. I felt it too and I’m sorry you lost her, no one should have to lose someone they love like that,” Mercury said gently taking her hand in his. Yang didn’t flinch from the contact.

“I guess we’re both pretty broken. Maybe that’s why Ozpin paired us together.” Yang wasn't going to bring up Mercury’s memory, she knew he didn’t really want to speak about it right now. Maybe in the future when the world wasn’t on the verge of ending he’d open up to her but for now, she could wait.

“Heh, yeah, I guess we are pretty similar when you think about it,” Mercury said, smiling at her.

“Here’s to being a team.” Yang smiled back at her new co-pilot.

“To a new team.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love it so so so much!!!!! <3Sooooo I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it!!! I know I ask for comments and Kudos a lot but I would really really appreciate it if you left some for this fic as it took me ages to write, I really hope I did the Pacific Rim universe justice. So thank you again for reading happy GnG week!!! <3 Also Adox has drawn some art for this and I'll link it to the fic when they've posted the artwork!!! It's soo good!


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